Creighton Prep has taken the next step to a safer way to play football.  Prep raised $80,000 dollars in a fundraiser to help pay for these $400 dollar helmets.

This grant was used to buy new helmets for all 5 of the football teams. Prep was the first high school in Nebraska to outfit their entire team with helmets.  

The new Riddell Insight helmets give the player’s coaches information on the intensity of the hit to the head of the players on the field. The helmets work on five sections of sensors that fit into the player’s helmet pads and measure the impact of a hit to the athlete’s helmet on both a linear or rotational collision. If the hit passes a certain threshold the helmet transmits a message to a small hand held monitor held by the coach or the athletic trainer.

“This is technology that will help our medical staff including [Kleber] diagnose concussions,” said Prep’s athletic director Dan Schinzel.

Then the coach can decide whether or not to pull the player. The monitor will keep a history on the hits of each of players adding them all up until they pass a certain threshold.

“There could be one hit that goes off above that special threshold,” Prep athletic trainer Bill Kleber said.

Prep’s athletic department is hoping that these new helmets will help encourage parents to allow their kids to play football. An example would be if a player’s helmet keeps sending hit notifications the coach could look and watch that certain athlete and fix his technique such as if a player leads with his head. The transmitters of these helmets are estimated to last about year.  Prep plans to continue to send in half of their helmets for reconditioning for optimal use.

“They do everything in their power to keep you safe,” said kicker Aiden Swanson.